But here’s a Social Security benefit I almost missed out on – and one that I bet a lot of others may overlook, too: a spousal benefit you can collect at the full retirement age of 66 if your spouse is retired and collecting Social Security, and you choose to continue working and postpone taking your own retirement benefit.

The spousal benefit is equal to half of your mate’s monthly benefit, a handsome inducement to put off collecting Social Security to let your benefit grow 8 percent a year until maxing out at age 70. Where else would you get a guaranteed 8 percent annual return for up to four years with no risk?

The spousal benefit is often overlooked because it’s widely thought of as the monthly payment a non-working housewife gets when her husband retires.

That was the original intention behind the benefit – to supplement the couple’s income. For example, if the husband received $1,500 a month, the wife would be eligible for $750 a month, once she reached the full retirement age.

But the law creating the benefit was not gender specific. Nor did it say you couldn’t collect it if you still work and had the larger salary.

Laura Bos, manager of financial security for AARP, agrees that a lot of near-retirement couples are unaware of the spousal benefit for someone who keeps working.

Bos says AARP provides a calculator on its website “to get the most benefits you possibly can.”

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